Beauty
by Fading wind
Summary: Beauty is fleeting. [SasoDei]


Title: Beauty  
Pairing: Sasori/Deidara  
Rating: G  
Spoilers: For a death after the timejump.  
Warnings: Shounen-ai. Angst, character death. Um, maybe slight OOCness because I really don't know how to write Sasori and Deidara?  
For: Wind-borne on LJ. Merry Christmas! I don't know whether this is what you wanted, but here it is anyway. Your keywords were _hard_.  
Keywords: Jelly, stripe, and nutcakes.  
Word Count: 1,428  
Disclaimer: Not mine.  
Author's Notes: Un-beta'ed. My first time writing this pairing, and I believe it will be my last. For even though I had much fun writing this, I decided that this is not the pairing for me, un.

**Beauty**

Sasori is beauty, Deidara thinks.

_But beauty is fleeting._

He contradicts with everything else Deidara has known. "Art is a bang", but Sasori is different. Sasori is the most precious masterpiece Deidara has ever seen. Sasori and his puppets will last forever -- that's what Sasori says, that's what all the Akatsuki says, and that's what Deidara thinks but never says. Because Deidara doesn't like contradicting himself.

Sasori does not respect Deidara's views on art, anyway. If Deidara expresses what he really feels about Sasori's art, he will only make a fool of himself. So Deidara keeps quiet.

At night, when the two of them are lying together, Deidara asks Sasori a simple question, "Do you think I am beautiful?"

Sasori has his back facing Deidara, and he doesn't reply. His breathing is even. Deidara thinks he is asleep.

Almost an hour later, when Deidara has fallen into a deep sleep, Sasori whispers into the darkness, "Yes, I do. But, will you last forever?"

It's something Deidara doesn't know: Sasori contradicts his own views on art as well.

But then, Sasori, too, does not know that Deidara does the same.

---

When Sasori wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, there is complete silence save for the barely audible breaths of his partner. He regards Deidara for a long moment. The light from the barred window falls onto his profile in stripes of black and silver. His mouth is half-open. His lips are luscious and soft and sweet -- like jelly, Sasori thinks.

Sasori is startled by his own thought. He doesn't ever remember eating jelly in his life. He raises his hand to touch his own lips. They feel so different, so... _lifeless_. Sasori can taste energy and life so fiercely in Deidara whenever they kiss, and he sometimes wonders why Deidara can bear to kiss him. He must taste of nothing. Nothing at all.

Sasori doesn't ever admit missing being alive, but the truth is, he does. He knows that not being alive does not mean he is dead, in his case, and that means he cannot be killed. Which should be a good enough reason for him to not miss being alive. He had always wanted to be immortal, and that's what he is now.

Art is something that lasts. Sasori is a great artist, and a great work of art himself. He will not die. Deidara will, one day, the beauty that he is. _(He does not want that to happen. Beauty should be eternal. And Deidara... Deidara is the very definition of the word 'beauty'.)_

Sasori confuses himself with his own thoughts.

He shakes his head, gets up without a sound, and leaves the room.

---

Deidara wakes up. Sasori is gone.

Deidara remembers what day it is today. It is Valentine's Day. They have never been romantic, but Deidara thinks that Valentine's Day is an excuse for an exception to be made, just for once. Deidara wonders what he should do.

He thinks about constructing a piece of art for Sasori. It will be a bang, no matter how much Sasori sneers at the idea of art being a bang. And it will be an amazing, breathtaking bang. With that in mind, Deidara sets off determinedly to make it.

---

Sasori walks into the room late at night, and Deidara is nowhere to be seen. It is only now that he realizes it is Valentine's Day, and it doesn't take a genius to guess what Deidara is up to. He doesn't have to wait long before the blond comes in and drags him out into the fields. "Watch," he says.

A huge bird flies overhead. It is larger than any other bird Deidara has ever made, and as it sweeps down low Sasori can see all the details. Deidara has never bothered to put too much detail into his work, as long as it serves its purpose and resembles vaguely what it's supposed to look like. But _this_ bird has intricate feathers and gleaming predatory eyes. A small smile drifts onto Sasori's face. Deidara notices this and feels a warmth spreading in his heart. Sasori is _admiring _his work.

The bird rises up, higher, and higher, and higher. Knowing Deidara, Sasori braces himself for the bang. It comes, the deafening, powerful bang. The bird explodes into thousands of multi-coloured sparks, like a fireworks display.

_"Art is a bang, eh?"_ Sasori thinks to himself.

And then Deidara is kissing Sasori. Deidara's lips seem to burn more than those sparks from the explosion ever could, and Sasori is addicted to that feeling. Sasori remembers the question he wants to ask -- does Deidara like kissing those lifeless lips? But Sasori senses that it is not a good time to bring up the question, because Deidara is trying to be... _(What is that word?) _romantic.

So he keeps quiet and lets Deidara carry on kissing him.

---

Sasori brings up the question one night, when Deidara is no longer in a romantic mood.

Deidara stares at him for a long, hard while before he answers, "Your lips aren't lifeless. They... They're a work of art, of utmost beauty. All art has life."

"Do you think I am beautiful?" Sasori asks this because even though Deidara has asked him this question, he hasn't asked him back yet.

This time, Deidara does not skip a beat. "Yes, I do. You're the most beautiful work of art ever."

Sasori has always had a high opinion of himself, but hearing praise from Deidara is different. Deidara's words make Sasori feel full of life, and he is grateful for that.

"You are extremely beautiful, too," Sasori murmurs, caressing Deidara's face.

Sasori thinks he sees a faint hint of a blush rising into Deidara's cheeks. They are both smiling. It's quite a romantic situation, Sasori realizes.

---

"TA-DA!" Deidara shoves a tray of nutcakes in front of Sasori the moment he opens his eyes at six o'clock in the morning.

Sasori blinks twice. "Nutcakes...? Why nutcakes?"

"It's White Day! I know that I gave you something for Valentine's Day and that you should be the one giving me something back, really, but I thought you wouldn't remember to. And I heard nutcakes were your favourite food when you were a child," Deidara replies with a huge grin on his face.

He thinks of the question _"Where did you hear that from?" _but he doesn't ask it. Instead he says, "But you know... You know I can't eat."

"You're so silly! Are you so sleepy that you can't even think straight? Of course they're not _real _nutcakes! Since when did Deidara learn how to bake food? They're made of clay." That grin is still pasted on Deidara's face. It isn't a familiar expression.

Sasori thinks that this Deidara is all too ridiculous and weirdly happy in a less insane way than usual, and he doesn't _know _this Deidara but somehow he finds that he likes it.

"Touch them," Deidara says. So Sasori does. The moment Sasori's fingertip comes into contact with one of the nutcakes it bursts open and there is the letter 'I'. Sasori touches another one. The letter is 'L'. And another one, 'O'. Sasori knows what the letters are going to spell out, but he touches each of them patiently.

"I LOVE YOU", all the nutcakes explodes to reveal.

Sasori has never heard Deidara say that sentence out loud. Neither has Sasori said it to Deidara.

He watches Deidara. The grin has faded into a gentle smile, and Sasori thinks he sees love in that smile, even though love is supposedly not a visible substance. Deidara blows softly at the tray, and the letters dissolves into dust. For a moment, Sasori almost wants to tell Deidara to stop. He wants that sentence to stay there forever. As they disappear, Sasori gets the foreboding sense that he will lose Deidara soon.

Deidara will die, he thinks. And Sasori will stay in this world, forever.

---

Deidara never expected Sasori to die before he does.

_(And he never expected himself to look so shocked when he learns of Sasori's death. He never expected he would refuse to eat and sleep for a week after Sasori's death. He never expected himself to feel nothing but emptiness during that time, refusing to accept the fact that Sasori had died. He never expected he would want to cry and cry and cry when he finally accepted it. And he never expected that he would actually _let _himself cry.)_

---

Beauty is fleeting.

**The End**


End file.
